The shift on to stock markets can, however, test investors’ nerves. Shares in U.S. high-tech greenhouse company AppHarvest, which completed its Spac deal last month, almost halved last week as the lock-up period ended for early investors. Shares in Oregon-based Laird Superfood, a plant-based coffee creamer co-founded by surfer Laird Hamilton have also been on a rollercoaster, underlining the volatility of early-stage companies’ stocks.
It plans to build another 11 such greenhouses by 2025. “What’s happening in agriculture is what we saw in the early 2000s when people started talking about cars not running on fossil fuels,” said Jonathan Webb, the company’s founder and a former renewable energy developer. Because agri-food tech companies move more than just bits and electrons, it might take longer for many of them to reach 'escape velocity'While the bull run in equity markets has meant that investors are willing to turn to early-stage companies, public company investors need to understand that the nature of start-ups is such that “some are going to end badly”, said one VC investor.